March 12, 2025 • 34 mins
Romance reading is evolving, and readers are discovering wild new genres that challenge traditional storytelling. In this podcast episode, Alesia sits down with Cassie from Unfortunate Reads to explore the fascinating world of monster and sentient object romance, breaking down stereotypes and celebrating diverse reading experiences.
Cassie is a sex-positive, feminist, LGBTQIA+ ally who enjoys reading every type of smutty book - from slow burn and mafia romances to straight-up gingerbread man erotica — but what I’m known for is reading the extremely weird/off-the-wall ones (think…clippy/door/flamingo shifter/coronavirus/etc.)
In this episode, we're discussing:
- Sentient object romance isn't just about weird sexual encounters; it's a nuanced genre exploring complex themes
- Reading should be about joy, personal growth, and exploration, not just meeting societal expectations
- Monster and unconventional romance genres provide safe spaces for readers to explore sexuality and identity
- Indie authors are creating incredibly diverse and inclusive narratives within these unique romance subgenres
- Content creators like Cassie are helping readers discover books they might never have found on their own
Don't judge a book by its cover—or its unconventional premise. Expand your reading horizons, challenge your assumptions, and remember that reading is ultimately about connection, understanding, and personal enjoyment.
CONNECT WITH UNFORTUNATE READS:
BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:
Jumping the Shark by Ash Raven (Amazon)
Unhinged by Vera Valentine (Amazon)
Squeak by Vera Valentine (Amazon)
Stuffed by Sylvia Morrow (Amazon)
Handle Me by Unfortunate Reads (Amazon)
Unfortunate Reads (Amazon)
Running list of books mentioned (Doc)
Thank you for listening to the We Read Smut Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag @WeReadSmut. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast.
Connect with Alesia:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alesia Galati (00:00):
Get ready for a absolutely wild ride. Today,
(00:04):
we're exploring the boundariesof romance, where love stories
defy expectations and conventionwith Cassie of unfortunate
reads. Listener discretion isadvised. This podcast contains
mature content intended foradult audiences only. Cassie, I
am so thrilled to have you onthe podcast. AKA, unfortunate
(00:28):
reads. I absolutely love yourcontent, and I remember finding
you and just laughinghysterically at your content and
being like, I read this book soyou don't have to just like,
Wait, actually. Now I kind ofwant to read that book, because
the way you described it wasepic, and I love, oh, before we
(00:49):
get into all the unfortunatereads and offbeat romance, let's
go ahead and hear a bit aboutyour reading, because we've kind
of become an adult reader.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (01:00):
Yeah, I think most I started out
reading really young, likereally young as an only child.
So that was a lot of mydowntime. Was reading, but I got
into when I was, like, in middleschool. I think my mom gave me
my first book. She's been superopen about that stuff, like back
in the Joanna Lindsay Fabiocover, step back days. And so I
found myself back in it when Iwas pregnant, because I couldn't
do any of my normal hobbies. Andthat's when I started finding
(01:23):
these weirder romance books thatI really liked to join, enjoyed
reading, and that's where I amtoday.
Alesia Galati (01:28):
I love that, and I love that your mom was like,
so open about it. My mom wasopen in like, the vocal sense.
She was a sex worker when I wasvery young, and she was open
about that, open aboutcleanliness, open about all the
things that I feel like in the90s, there was just a lot of
like, purity culture, and don'ttalk about it. And I was born in
(01:53):
the 90s, but, like my mom, wasalways very open about sex,
about what it was like. Iremember when I got my first
period, and she was like, sothis is what I'm like, Mom, I
already know we don't need tohave this discussion.
Cassie @Unfortunate Read (02:09):
That's definitely not common. I know my
experience was common, like whenI was in middle school, I came
home and I asked what an orgasmwas, because someone said it,
and she told me what it wasstraight out. And then in high
school, when I want to get onbirth control, she was like,
thinking about having sex. I waslike, Yeah, but because of that,
I know because of that, I neverhad to hide anything from her.
So our relationship's alwaysbeen
Alesia Galati (02:26):
like that, yeah, and I think that's so powerful.
And I have boys, so it's verydifferent, and it's very co
hosted with my husbandconversations. And they're 10
seven, so we're at the point ofyour body's gonna go through
changes, and this is what sex isand these is what your private
parts are called. This is whatalternate private parts are
called. And like, we're veryopen about the language and no
(02:50):
shame, which I think is soimportant, especially as
parents, to not have shame whenwe're talking about these
things, because these arenatural functions and natural
things that happen. So I lovethat your mom was like that with
you. So wonderful. So let's heara bit about how you got into
Bookstagram, because I feel likeeverybody's journey into like,
(03:12):
Okay, I'm gonna create bookishcontent. It's a little
different.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (03:16):
Yeah, and this is where everyone
always laughs because they thinkI've been doing this for a long
time. I started in September oflast year doing this. So I'd
always been reading again. LikeI said, I was pregnant,
breastfeeding, all that stuff athome, and I just kept finding
these books, and, like, one ofthose people that sees it, I'm
like, I gotta know. Like, I haveto know. And so I was sending it
to my friends who are not asavid readers, and definitely not
on the weird side of stuff. Andthey were like, You should
(03:38):
probably just start an account,because I'm pretty sure they
were sick of me, just like,hollering at them about these
weird these weird books. So Idid started with unhinged, and
then a couple of my videos justtook off. And within three
months, I had 25,000 followers.
And then within six months, Ihad 38,000 followers. So it's
like, absolutely wild thatprogression happened. So it was
just blew up. So
Alesia Galati (04:00):
for anyone who's like, what is your content? What
kind of things are you posting?
How did you do that? Give us alittle bit of insight into the
kind of content you're posting.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (04:11):
Sure, I think it's funny because you
mentioned my tagline, which is,I read this shit, so you don't
have to, but then it gets youintrigued about what it is,
right? So I think that a lot ofpeople may think that I'm like,
talking bad about these books,but when in reality, I don't
even review them. I don't givethem stars, I don't say if I
like them or not I really do,like a TLDR recap of them, so
that people can decide, oh, Imight want to try that, because
(04:32):
it's either really weird orreally good. And then some
people be like, I don't need toknow. Thank you. Bye.
Alesia Galati (04:37):
I can think of one specific recommendation that
you posted about. And for thelife of me, I cannot think of
what the title of the book is,because I read so many books.
It's a bit ridiculous, but itwas the shark alien.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (04:52):
Oh, jumping the shark, yeah.
Alesia Galati (04:55):
So you you mentioned it, or you posted
about or you did a video aboutit. So. Something, and I was
like, Color me intrigued. I'mgoing to read that. And I did
it. I loved it. So cute, right?
Good. And
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (05:10):
it's something that people might not
pick up because it's totally outof their warehouse. It's an
author they've never readbefore, but just knowing that
it's a weird little matchbreaking service, and he's got
two gnos and whatever. Sospecial features, I guess this
is explicit. I could say thatwhatever. So this is censoring
myself at this point, and youwant to get into it, because you
would never know that if youdidn't have someone give you a
recap of that. Yeah.
Alesia Galati (05:32):
And so that's why I love one way I love
Bookstagram is because you canfind the most obscure things and
be like, actually, I kind of I'minterested in that. And I think
it also expands us a bit moreeven, yes, we talk about romance
is like this, who kind of thingwhere, you know, oh, you read
(05:54):
romance. Oh, that's not reallyreading or, Oh, you read smut.
You're just reading it for thesmut. You're not actually
reading it for anything otherthan that, and I've talked about
this before, but there's so muchmore that we can get from
romance that I do not thinkpeople who don't read it
actually realize they just seeit as porn, which it's not at
(06:20):
all.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (06:20):
Yep, and there's nothing wrong with
porn. Who doesn't want porn?
Some people don't. I get it, butI'm not gonna sit here and
disparage porn in any way.
That's just fine, too. But thisis a little bit different, and a
lot of what I say is likereading is reading. It doesn't
matter what you're reading, aslong as you're reading. People
used to watch Flavor of Love orteal and tequila fall in love
with people, or blind date, orwhatever the new reality TV show
(06:40):
is there's no different to justput your mind on something
different and escape for alittle while, whether you're
reading about a door or you'rereading about some 500 year old
Fae that falls in love with a 19year old girl. Anyway, I read
those books too, but still. So Iactually have a lot of people in
my DMs a few months ago thathave thanked me for getting the
reading again, these little,short things that have gotten
(07:02):
them reading again, and theydidn't feel ashamed about it,
and it was just a little hourlong book they could escape
into. It wasn't intimidating.
Some people have bought Kindlesnow they've got Kindle
Unlimited. So it's a lot deeperthan just your reading porn.
Alesia Galati (07:15):
Yes, could not agree more. Yeah, I think about
even like, the empathy that Ihave gained as just like being
able to understand someoneelse's experience, and, no, I
don't mean smashing an alienshark. The other things, which I
mean, like interesting, but theother things, like, in that
(07:37):
story, specifically thinkingabout someone who's like, hey,
we can't procreate. Are you okaywith that? That is a topic for a
lot of people, and that's notyour typical hea happily ever
after for the uni initiated.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (07:54):
Yeah.
And I'd say, like, it is atrope, but it's redone, right?
So there's always the bars needswomen trope, where the women
were always abducted because themen on the alien planet couldn't
reproduce and had no women leftor whatever. This does it a
little bit differently, whereit's all consensual. They sign
up for it. They're expecting it.
It's not like they were justjoint out of their backyard and
sent to some alien planet.
Alesia Galati (08:14):
Yeah. And I like this idea of being able to tie
in different things like that,or being in a dead end job that
you hate, and just wanting tohave shark daddy take care of
you. Like, I get it. I
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (08:27):
feel that, listen, I feel that if I
had some rich shark daddy belike, come to my beautiful
planet and like, with my twodicks, and I'll take care of
you. Yeah. Sign me the frick up.
Sorry, husband, love you. Tie meup
Alesia Galati (08:43):
exactly. Yeah, I think it is. It's interesting,
like thinking about, likeromance and how and even the
unfortunate reads, right as youso lovingly put them, that we
can learn so much about our owndesires or like, what we want in
a partner beyond just two dicks,right? Because we know that's
(09:04):
not, most likely not going tohappen, statistically, but
there's so much more to romancethan I think meets the eye, and
so this is not the place for anyshame or shade you want to read
the craziest stuff. I don't wantto say crazy, because I feel
like that's overused in thesense of, like, bad, right? But
(09:26):
you guys, I
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (09:27):
call it weird lovingly, like, I take
back that word, like I readweird shit, and that's fine. I
love it. There's nothing wrongwith that. So take that word
back. You can call it crazy,weird and off the wall, and I'm
here for it.
Alesia Galati (09:39):
I love it. So let's get into some of those,
like initial books that you readwhere you were like, Oh, this is
very interesting that, like youmentioned, it piqued your
interest, and ones that you tendto recommend to like noobs.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (09:53):
So when I first started delving
into Monster romance, that was along time ago, before it was
really popular, and before. Orthe indie publishing was, like
huge and as easy as it is now,but to get into the sentient
object stuff, I will say thatunhinged was one of the ones
that caught my eye first, andalso Vera Valentine's other one
squeak because it was a door. Ihad to know how she banged the
(10:15):
door like I just had to knowwhat the story was, right,
whether it was going to be superweird or I don't know what I was
expecting, but Vera is aphenomenal author, like she is a
wordsmith through and through.
So you read these books, and allof a sudden I was like, this is
really well written, which a lotof people have that realization,
and I get it, but it was reallywell written. There was a story,
there was backstory, there waslore, and it was fun. It
spiraled into Tyrannosaurus topsand bottoms. It's in. It also
(10:39):
spiraled into stuff, the pillowone, and things like that. So I
think it just you, once you getin one, it's like, you don't
stop. You just keep going formore. Yes,
Alesia Galati (10:52):
I don't know that. I've gotten so much into
the objects, though. Haven'tread the door one, but I did
read squeak and
Cassie @Unfortunate Rea (11:02):
squeaks on the edge of like the sentient
object, right? Because they'retechnically shifters. It's a
weird Omega burst, and they turninto balloon animals, but
they're technically shifters,right? They don't start as
something else, like the doordoes, or the candy corn or
whatever else it is. But that'swhere a lot of my stuff
originated. Is that sentientobject? Yeah, monster Romans
(11:23):
too. I love Monster romance, butsentient object romance is just
a whole different level of likecomedy and interesting to me
Alesia Galati (11:31):
explain that. So for people who are like, I don't
really understand thedifference.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (11:36):
Yeah, so sentient object romance is
exactly what it sounds like. Soif you were to look around at
your house and this hashappened, don't I'm telling you,
this happened. And looked aroundand said, Can I fuck that? How
would I fuck it, you know, if Icould? And so that's where this
all starts. I'm not joking,like, the amount of people who
do that. And so that's whatsentient object romance is, is
you think about an object comingto life, why it comes to life,
(12:00):
and how you would do it when itcame to life. Whereas monster
romances usually revolves aroundeither shifters or aliens, I'm
gonna say I'm encompassing allof it in Monster romance. I know
that it's technically paranormalor sci fi, but let's talk it as
a whole, or monsters or orcs orthings that you're used to
seeing, right? There's monstersthat you have seen in lore or in
other books, even as a kid,where a sentient object is out
(12:24):
there, it could be anything I
Alesia Galati (12:26):
can just to see people being like, what? But
stay with those guys. I promise
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (12:33):
it's gonna be good. Listen, I promise
it will make sense to you, ifyou ever pick up one, yes.
Alesia Galati (12:40):
What is the difference than what we would
see in, like, your typicalromances? I know a lot of these
in sentient objects. Those tendto be like very short bite size,
not a ton of backstory that youwould expect, minus the Avira
ones that you've mentioned,where there's a lot of backstory
where you might not haveexpected that. But typically,
(13:01):
from what I've seen, they'relike your one one and a half
hour reads, how does thatdiffer? And how does the story
arc tend to differ from, say,your typical contemporary
romance or your typical sci firomance?
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (13:17):
Yeah, so I'd actually say that it
doesn't differ that much. Ithink that there's a couple ways
people write, and neither one ofthem is right or wrong. So like,
you have Vera or me, who puts alot of information on how it got
turned into a human, or how it'salive, or whatever. Meanwhile,
Holly wild is like, We'refucking sunscreen. Now I'm not
giving you an explanation.
You're gonna like it. So there'stwo different approaches to the
sentient object romance, and Idon't think either one of them
(13:40):
is right or wrong. So some ofthem are just, you're going to
deal with it this, forget lore,forget backstory. And so those
are your really quick reads,like under an hour reads. And
then I think that even thoughsome of these ascension object
romance books are short, theyhave a full range of characters
from like a redemption arc,they've got issues with other
people and governments andwhatever you have you all packed
(14:03):
into a book that's under 100pages. And so it takes those
tropes and arcs in acontemporary romance book and
translates them in how you woulddo it in this so like the door
book, obviously they have sex,and you have to figure out how
to do it. But there's also thearc of the landlord's evil and
things like that. Or I'm tryingto think of another book that
has the tropes that you wouldconsider touch or and die is a
(14:25):
big one. And stuffed and stuffedthe pillow literally drains the
life from people. And theoriginal reason he drains like
the life force from this personis because he the pillow. Ori
saw this guy, Todd being slimyto the per the girl he was in
love with, and so when Toddtouched the pillow, he like
sucked his life force out ofthem, right? So it's like they
had another touch or die. Instuff too, is some security
(14:47):
guards were going to be catchingher and do something like nasty
to her, so he sucked the lifeout of them too. Like it's a
touch or die, but it's a pillow.
And then in the double stuff,the second one, there's primal.
Play at a chase scene, but it'sbetween the pillow and the fish
man, so I don't think it variesall that much. I think that a
lot of the sentient objectauthors take what you see in a
(15:08):
contemporary romance and turn iton into that a little bit. Yeah,
Alesia Galati (15:12):
I love that, though, because I think that
really, and I like to say thisfor diversity too, right? If you
want a second chance romance,that's a contemporary romance,
right? Like monsters andsentient objects aside, if you
want that kind of trope, you canfind that across a slew of
diverse authors, diversebackgrounds, diverse stories,
(15:33):
and still have a really highquality, either low angst, high
angst, like it doesn't matter,you will have that across the
board. And so I think that it'ssuch an important point that
while we can read for fun, wecan still read whatever we want,
and it can be across the boarddiversely, whether that is a
(15:54):
touch her and die mafia or atouch her and die Black Mafia or
a touch her and die pillow, itdoesn't matter. Yeah.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (16:02):
And I think what's fun about sentient
object romance and even monsterromance is that it's inherently
diverse. I think that a lot ofthe authors just if you're
banging something that doesn'thave a gender in the first
place, and it can be anythingyou want, so you don't have to
think about specifically.
Obviously, you want to writewith your own voice. You don't
want to write something aboutyou don't know, but you have a
little bit more freedom to writeabout different gender
expressions and sexualities andthings like that. So there's
(16:25):
really to read it diversely, butalso weird. Yes, 100%
Alesia Galati (16:32):
I think that when people view dark romance
specifically, because that tendsto be the more popular topic.
There's a lot of talk about, isit safe to have those and we've
talked about this before on theshow, but there are dark
romances where it is allowedthose storylines allow sexual
(16:57):
assault survivors to be able toprocess their experiences in a
safe way for them, and so Ithink that the same goes for
these types of books where it'slike you can learn so much and
create safe and empoweringspaces to explore your fantasies
and your desires in a way that'slike You're not actually getting
(17:21):
kidnapped by a two digit shark.
So
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (17:23):
I now that you mentioned that I
actually went, there's somethingI wanted to say about that is
that there's a lot of asexualpeople who have messaged me to
say that this is a kind of asafe way for them to explore
these sexual topics, becauseit's not a person, right? It's
not a person that you getattached to there's sometimes
there's not even skin. Some, itdepends. But I've had a lot of
(17:44):
people who enjoy these booksbecause they can explore that in
a safe and a way that they havecontrol over, versus some of
these other romances that like acontemporary romance, or a dark
mafia romance or something likethat. Oh,
Alesia Galati (17:56):
that's such a good point I saw in threads. I
want to say it was just a fewdays ago, where it was an
asexual author who has sexscenes in their book, and they
mentioned that one, just becausethey're asexual doesn't mean
that they don't enjoy writingabout it and exploring it in a
way that feels safe on page, butthey really don't want to do in
(18:17):
real life, and that's a Okay.
And a lot of people whocommented were like, wait, that
was the thing that was holdingme back from stating that I am
asexual, was that I don't mindthinking about it. I just don't
want to do it. That opened up,like the idea of, oh, wait, I
can claim that as something thatI feel really aligns with how I
(18:39):
show up. So I think that it's soimportant that point like you
wouldn't think, Oh, this issomething that can help people
or is a safe space for asexualsto be able to explore,
especially if you're someone whodoes not identify as that,
because there's so much of aspectrum to sexuality that oh
yeah, if you're not in thatspace, it could be like, Oh, no,
(19:01):
that's just people who and youcan label them right in a really
negative way. And so to be ableto see that, oh, wait, that is
such a great point. Yeah, I'mglad you brought that up. Yeah,
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (19:12):
one of the authors as a friend of
mine, latrucksa Nova, is Ace NBpan this is all out there. I'm
not like outing them or anythinglike that, but they write the
like, really hot sex scenes, andthey love writing this stuff,
and like writing weird stuff,but just because they write
about the experience and havefun doing it doesn't mean that
they necessarily want to have itthemselves. It's a way for them
(19:34):
to express this without doing itin real life.
Alesia Galati (19:38):
Yes, I think it's such an important point, and I
don't think that when,especially people who don't read
romance, try to talk about it, Idon't know if you read the
article that was in Cosmo UK,where they had quoted Ruby Dixon
and Katie Robert and mentionedmonsters. Or Minotaur one seeing
(20:02):
a Costa? Yes, thank you. So theyhad mentioned that, and you
could tell that this person wasnot a romance reader at all, and
that it was all about monsterromance and why we're obsessed
with aliens right now, and whywe're obsessed with fucking
sending objects, and why we'reinto this whole thing, or why we
want to get chased through amaze by a minatorium for it, I'm
(20:27):
not going to try it, you know.
And so, like, you could tellfrom the article that, well,
Ruby Dixon was like, I was justhappy to be quoted. Like, I
thought that was cool that I wasin Cosmo at the same time. She
was like, I didn't really lovethe approach, but it's cool that
I got quoted, and I agreed itwas just like, you could tell
(20:49):
that they were just giving a lotof negative connotation to
people reading this kind ofstuff and not really exploring
the conversation outside ofjust, oh, you're reading monster
smut, which I think about evenmyself. 10 years ago, before I
started reading this kind ofstuff, I was super judgy of
(21:11):
even, like regular smut, noteven talking about monster smut.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (21:19):
I clearly was not, since I
started. So, yeah, I thinkthat's important to what you're
saying, is they don't exploreoutward, outwardly, of what else
it could be besides the sex,right? Yeah, okay, there's sex,
and some of them, it's hot, butsometimes that's not the point
of some of these books. Andpeople who write these books are
still authors, so they're stillwriting characters that practice
(21:40):
consent, or have an identitycrisis, or have body dysmorphia.
That's, I can name books thathave all of those things in
them, outside of just cool, thesex was hot, like I had sex with
an orc. But also there was a sexworker involved in gaff only
fans, that it's not only fansselling fannies or something
like that, and like bodydysmorphia and interracial
(22:01):
dating. So it's just there's alot of that we put into it that
is beyond just like fucking
Alesia Galati (22:08):
Yes. And I think that when we approach these
conversations, and you and I arebeing comical a bit in the way
that we're approaching it, and Ifeel like you approach it very
comically, but in a way to drawpeople in. You're not it's like
the one girl who reads all thoseone star reviews of books, flips
them. It's, oh, wait, that kindof made me want to read the
(22:30):
book, or, Oh, that was, like, acomical way to approach that
book. She's not tagging meauthors or doing any of that
stuff. But it still is a way to,like, comically approach these
topics. And I think that you dothat so well. Like you stated
where you're like, look, you'reeither gonna read this or you're
not, not gonna tell you if Iliked it or not. But this is
(22:52):
what happened.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (22:53):
I think a lot of times you need
humor to draw you in, becausepeople shy away from things that
are too like, serious, right?
Have I read them? Yeah, I'veread classics, but I don't want
to. I want to read this otherstuff instead. So if you do a
little funny, people have towatch. It's like, I look at the
door. I had to read it. Someonehears me talk about the door.
They got to know what happens.
You
Alesia Galati (23:12):
know, yes, I think it's so good, though,
because it allows people to feellike, oh, wait, this isn't the
one. Reading doesn't have to beas serious as I think we make it
as adults. And that was a lot ofmy own reading journey was, oh,
I'm in college, and I have toread for college. Oh, I'm an
adult, I'm a new mom, so I haveto read new mom books, or, Oh,
(23:33):
I'm an adult, and I'm trying tobe a better person and be a good
parent and show up as a goodwife. So I need to read all
these self development books,and I was pushing myself to the
point of feeling shitty aboutmyself because I couldn't get
through these books. I
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (23:52):
hate those books. I'm not so say,
like a specific book, it's justas a whole. I don't enjoy
reading them, so it's a slog. Iread fast. I read really fast.
At one point, I think I readover 400 books at the end of
2022 or something like that.
That just it drags for me,right? Like it's just not the
way I want to consume my media.
Regarding that topic, how thecomments on my page are on the
(24:13):
videos, especially when thingsget on the wrong side of the
internet, are like, Why don'tyou try reading something
serious? Or have you ever read,why don't you try reading catch
or the rye, and I'm like, Yeah,I have have you. I've read gana
Karina, I've read War and Peace,I've read Of Mice and Men and
all those classics. That doesn'tmean that the books I'm reading
now aren't any more or lessimportant to what my experience
(24:37):
is as a well rounded reader. Ithink a lot of times they throw
that in your face, and I'm like,okay, yeah, I have, and I don't
want to.
Alesia Galati (24:46):
Does that make you a and I think this is person
specific, right? Is what you'rereading, allowing you to grow as
a person or live the life thatyou want to be living, which I
don't think is. Something thatwe consider, enough that
especially with society of likesocial media and seeing
(25:06):
everybody else's stuff andseeing what everybody else is
doing, and, oh, I read X amountof books, and they were all self
development, or the other oneguy who said that he read like a
book a day, but really he justskimmed to the first two pages
of each chapter.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (25:25):
I think along the way, we've lost
and again, not everybody's likethis, obviously, but I'm
watching my son right now. He'stwo, and he is obsessed with
reading and books, and wants tojust pick up his own and do his
own thing. And he will gothrough him book after book, and
he's getting excited when heunderstands the words, and it
brings you joy. And then you getjoy when you read other stories,
and you get to read about moredetail stories, or there's
(25:47):
goosebumps, or the thoroughbredseries, or whatever else it is,
right? But somewhere betweenhigh school and college and
adulthood, we lost that readingis for pleasure and joy aspect
as well as knowledge. So I thinkthat a lot of people are like,
Oh, we can't read for funanymore. We can only read
serious things. That's not true,because if you have no fun in
your life, then that doesn'tmake you a well rounded person
(26:08):
either. Yes,
Alesia Galati (26:11):
I think as maybe this is men see this, but we
don't have these conversations.
But I think as women, too,there's so much pressure on us
to be just one thing, right,instead of multifaceted and
having hobbies and havinginterests outside of our house,
outside of our jobs, outside ofour marriages, I'm not saying go
(26:31):
outside of your marriage. I'msaying like interests outside of
your marriage, when, in reality,interests actually allow you to
come back to your relationshipsway healthier. I know I got a
lot of people having opinionsabout me going back to work
after I had both of my kids, andit was like I got my clear from
(26:53):
the doctor. After six weeks, I'mgoing back. I do not want to be
home with a child. I'm alreadydealing with postpartum
depression. I need other people,and I need to be having adult
interactions to be alive. So no,I cannot be home with my child.
There's
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (27:15):
a lot of comments, and then it's
really just translated from pornto dressing scandalously or
whatever it is, is that menthink that they can police the
way that women act and what theyenjoy and consume. So a lot of
the comments on my page are, ifI had a girl, I wouldn't let
them read this. This is I waslike, let them what. Let them
(27:35):
like. That is a red flag leftand right, just it's a book, and
now it's the phrasing, and it'sagain, men trying to police what
women can enjoy and what womencan consume, or how they act.
Alesia Galati (27:47):
So there's another conversation. I'm
curious, of your opinion goingaround about putting ratings on
books like they did for CDs. Iwant to say that was early,
2000s What are your thoughts onthat?
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (27:59):
So here's the problem, and we're
talking about readings just foreveryone. I'm assuming. We're
not talking about stars, we'retalking about content ratings,
right? So Ma, or whatever it is,okay, that would be great.
However, because of logistics,we can't, because a lot of these
books are written by indieauthors, and the main source of
publishing for indie authors isAmazon. Amazon is very strict
(28:21):
about the words you can use,what can be on their covers,
even down to what can be in yourblurb. I've had books put on
what's called a dungeon becauseI had one word wrong in my
keyword search. And as much aswe'd like to the reason you see
a lot of authors say your checkyour trigger warnings are on my
website and not my book, isbecause Amazon scans that stuff
and we'll ban them, and willrevoke your account and access.
(28:42):
So as much as I think it wouldbe great to be able to have,
like, spice level, it's just notlogistically possible. I think
it's also, you know, even ifthey had something, especially
for these cartoon covers,because I know that a lot of
times it looks like rom com isactually like a dark fafu, yeah,
because that's just the trendright now. But on the other
hand, you should be reading theblurb, right? You should be
reading. If you're getting intoa book and you read about it,
(29:03):
you should know what you'regetting into in the first place.
You shouldn't just pick it upblindly, unless you're like me
and you don't care. One of ourreviews on push to cushions,
reviews don't bother me at all,was a one star and it said,
basically, it literally said, Iread the trigger warnings. I
just thought it would bedifferent. What No Ma sticker on
the front of that is going tochange that person and how they
reacted to the book or stop themfrom reading it.
Alesia Galati (29:26):
Yeah, and that's so true. Yeah. One of the
authors who was combating thisidea was saying, just like,
Walmart will not allow ma ontheir CDs that they're selling.
You don't want to put authors inthat position. And then it also
ties a bit into banning books,right? And What books should be
(29:49):
allowed or what books shouldn'tbe allowed, and, yeah, there's
so much discussion around thisthat I'm always so interested in
people's opinions, because it'snever something I thought about.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (29:57):
I actually have a very specific
example I just went. Room. So mybook handle me is dungeon, and I
could not figure out why,because I thought me because I
put erotica in the like searchtitles, they're very finicky
about what it is, and so Iactually messaged them to be
like, what is it? What do I haveto do to get this on dungeon so
you can search for it? Andapparently, and I don't remember
doing this, because it was myfirst book I published on my
(30:19):
own, and I don't think I didthis. I think something messed
up. There's a thing that says,Does your cover or title contain
any explicit imagery or wordsyou have to hit? Yes or no you
always want to hit No. Mine wasselected as Yes, and literally,
if you select Yes, Amazon willsuppress that book No matter
what, even if it's in thecategory of raga. So they said
that Amazon will suppress bookslike that and keep it out of
(30:42):
their search results, to keepAmazon a safe space. So that's
why we can't do that. It's justlike you said, like Walmart has
restrictions. Amazon is likeguys, just has a chokehold on
the market, and they make iteasy to publish, but you gotta
follow their rules.
Alesia Galati (30:55):
Yeah. So interesting. What is it like
being a content creator forbookish stuff, and also an
author. How do you balance it?
And also, there's a lot of talkabout like author spaces,
reviewer spaces, reader spaces.
So how do
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (31:12):
you balance all that? So I think
it's a little easier for me,because I started out not doing
reviews. I didn't give starratings, I didn't tag authors,
and star ratings once you'vehave crossed the line from just
a content creator to publishingyour book, which happens a lot,
you no longer can be a contentcreator that reviews that way if
you want to be part of thecommunity, because essentially,
(31:32):
what you're doing is you'retalking good or bad about your
co workers, right? And you can'tdo that. You've now switched
gears into being a little morein the author space, even though
you're bridging both. So yeah,it was easier for me because I
never gave reviews, because Ijust didn't feel like that was
that's not my style. It's notwhat I wanted. I just wanted to
tell you about the book, whetherI liked it and thought it was a
five star reader you did, andeveryone's gonna have a
(31:53):
different perception of it.
Perspective, oh my gosh. Wordsare great perception of it. What
level of good it is? So
Alesia Galati (32:00):
yeah, that's a good point, too. And I always
get a little like iffy, becauseI see people go from reader to
author. Kudos to you. That'sawesome. I'm always curious how
they're going to approach thatgoing forward, and how they plan
on either shifting their contententirely or like, I know one
author who does a lot ofindependent she's an indie
(32:23):
author, and she doesn'tnecessarily review them. She'll
just say, Oh, these are thebooks I read this month, and
shout out to those authors,which I think is a good way to
approach it, rather than leavingratings and reviews, because
there's a lot of finickiness tothat.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (32:40):
Yeah, and I actually have a friend
who's publishing her first book,and I think it helps to have the
community watching out for youonce you get yourself in that
community, because she ispublishing her first book is not
published yet, but it's comingout, and she posted over rating
like she normally does, and Imessaged her. Was like, Hey, you
can't do that anymore, like youcan, but I'm gonna tell you what
the consequences are, and Idon't think you should do that
(33:00):
for your career. If you havepeople watching out for you,
that's also super helpful whenyou're transitioning.
Alesia Galati (33:06):
Yeah. Oh, that's so fun. So this has been
amazing, Cassie. Thank you somuch for being on where can
people find you get to know youwatch your videos because I
gotta tell y'all just go watchCassie videos because they are
hilarious and I love watchingthem. And also, check out your
books.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (33:25):
I have my website,
unfortunates.com where I'm stillupdating with my books, but I do
have all my narration listedthere, my shop, my Instagram and
tick tock. The place you want towatch my videos is mostly
Instagram and tick tock. And asfar as the books, they're all on
Amazon for the most part. So ifyou go to my website, there's
links to everything
Alesia Galati (33:41):
awesome, and we'll make sure that we have
links for that in the shownotes, in the description, for
anyone who's watching or anddoing other things as podcast
listeners tend to so be sure togo follow Cassie. Cassie, this
has been so much fun. Thank youso much.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (33:56):
Thank you for having me. Wow.
Get ready for a absolutely wild ride. Today,
(00:04):
we're exploring the boundariesof romance, where love stories
defy expectations and conventionwith Cassie of unfortunate
reads. Listener discretion isadvised. This podcast contains
mature content intended foradult audiences only. Cassie, I
am so thrilled to have you onthe podcast. AKA, unfortunate
(00:28):
reads. I absolutely love yourcontent, and I remember finding
you and just laughinghysterically at your content and
being like, I read this book soyou don't have to just like,
Wait, actually. Now I kind ofwant to read that book, because
the way you described it wasepic, and I love, oh, before we
(00:49):
get into all the unfortunatereads and offbeat romance, let's
go ahead and hear a bit aboutyour reading, because we've kind
of become an adult reader.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (01:00):
Yeah, I think most I started out
reading really young, likereally young as an only child.
So that was a lot of mydowntime. Was reading, but I got
into when I was, like, in middleschool. I think my mom gave me
my first book. She's been superopen about that stuff, like back
in the Joanna Lindsay Fabiocover, step back days. And so I
found myself back in it when Iwas pregnant, because I couldn't
do any of my normal hobbies. Andthat's when I started finding
(01:23):
these weirder romance books thatI really liked to join, enjoyed
reading, and that's where I amtoday.
Alesia Galati (01:28):
I love that, and I love that your mom was like,
so open about it. My mom wasopen in like, the vocal sense.
She was a sex worker when I wasvery young, and she was open
about that, open aboutcleanliness, open about all the
things that I feel like in the90s, there was just a lot of
like, purity culture, and don'ttalk about it. And I was born in
(01:53):
the 90s, but, like my mom, wasalways very open about sex,
about what it was like. Iremember when I got my first
period, and she was like, sothis is what I'm like, Mom, I
already know we don't need tohave this discussion.
Cassie @Unfortunate Read (02:09):
That's definitely not common. I know my
experience was common, like whenI was in middle school, I came
home and I asked what an orgasmwas, because someone said it,
and she told me what it wasstraight out. And then in high
school, when I want to get onbirth control, she was like,
thinking about having sex. I waslike, Yeah, but because of that,
I know because of that, I neverhad to hide anything from her.
So our relationship's alwaysbeen
Alesia Galati (02:26):
like that, yeah, and I think that's so powerful.
And I have boys, so it's verydifferent, and it's very co
hosted with my husbandconversations. And they're 10
seven, so we're at the point ofyour body's gonna go through
changes, and this is what sex isand these is what your private
parts are called. This is whatalternate private parts are
called. And like, we're veryopen about the language and no
(02:50):
shame, which I think is soimportant, especially as
parents, to not have shame whenwe're talking about these
things, because these arenatural functions and natural
things that happen. So I lovethat your mom was like that with
you. So wonderful. So let's heara bit about how you got into
Bookstagram, because I feel likeeverybody's journey into like,
(03:12):
Okay, I'm gonna create bookishcontent. It's a little
different.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (03:16):
Yeah, and this is where everyone
always laughs because they thinkI've been doing this for a long
time. I started in September oflast year doing this. So I'd
always been reading again. LikeI said, I was pregnant,
breastfeeding, all that stuff athome, and I just kept finding
these books, and, like, one ofthose people that sees it, I'm
like, I gotta know. Like, I haveto know. And so I was sending it
to my friends who are not asavid readers, and definitely not
on the weird side of stuff. Andthey were like, You should
(03:38):
probably just start an account,because I'm pretty sure they
were sick of me, just like,hollering at them about these
weird these weird books. So Idid started with unhinged, and
then a couple of my videos justtook off. And within three
months, I had 25,000 followers.
And then within six months, Ihad 38,000 followers. So it's
like, absolutely wild thatprogression happened. So it was
just blew up. So
Alesia Galati (04:00):
for anyone who's like, what is your content? What
kind of things are you posting?
How did you do that? Give us alittle bit of insight into the
kind of content you're posting.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (04:11):
Sure, I think it's funny because you
mentioned my tagline, which is,I read this shit, so you don't
have to, but then it gets youintrigued about what it is,
right? So I think that a lot ofpeople may think that I'm like,
talking bad about these books,but when in reality, I don't
even review them. I don't givethem stars, I don't say if I
like them or not I really do,like a TLDR recap of them, so
that people can decide, oh, Imight want to try that, because
(04:32):
it's either really weird orreally good. And then some
people be like, I don't need toknow. Thank you. Bye.
Alesia Galati (04:37):
I can think of one specific recommendation that
you posted about. And for thelife of me, I cannot think of
what the title of the book is,because I read so many books.
It's a bit ridiculous, but itwas the shark alien.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (04:52):
Oh, jumping the shark, yeah.
Alesia Galati (04:55):
So you you mentioned it, or you posted
about or you did a video aboutit. So. Something, and I was
like, Color me intrigued. I'mgoing to read that. And I did
it. I loved it. So cute, right?
Good. And
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (05:10):
it's something that people might not
pick up because it's totally outof their warehouse. It's an
author they've never readbefore, but just knowing that
it's a weird little matchbreaking service, and he's got
two gnos and whatever. Sospecial features, I guess this
is explicit. I could say thatwhatever. So this is censoring
myself at this point, and youwant to get into it, because you
would never know that if youdidn't have someone give you a
recap of that. Yeah.
Alesia Galati (05:32):
And so that's why I love one way I love
Bookstagram is because you canfind the most obscure things and
be like, actually, I kind of I'minterested in that. And I think
it also expands us a bit moreeven, yes, we talk about romance
is like this, who kind of thingwhere, you know, oh, you read
(05:54):
romance. Oh, that's not reallyreading or, Oh, you read smut.
You're just reading it for thesmut. You're not actually
reading it for anything otherthan that, and I've talked about
this before, but there's so muchmore that we can get from
romance that I do not thinkpeople who don't read it
actually realize they just seeit as porn, which it's not at
(06:20):
all.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (06:20):
Yep, and there's nothing wrong with
porn. Who doesn't want porn?
Some people don't. I get it, butI'm not gonna sit here and
disparage porn in any way.
That's just fine, too. But thisis a little bit different, and a
lot of what I say is likereading is reading. It doesn't
matter what you're reading, aslong as you're reading. People
used to watch Flavor of Love orteal and tequila fall in love
with people, or blind date, orwhatever the new reality TV show
(06:40):
is there's no different to justput your mind on something
different and escape for alittle while, whether you're
reading about a door or you'rereading about some 500 year old
Fae that falls in love with a 19year old girl. Anyway, I read
those books too, but still. So Iactually have a lot of people in
my DMs a few months ago thathave thanked me for getting the
reading again, these little,short things that have gotten
(07:02):
them reading again, and theydidn't feel ashamed about it,
and it was just a little hourlong book they could escape
into. It wasn't intimidating.
Some people have bought Kindlesnow they've got Kindle
Unlimited. So it's a lot deeperthan just your reading porn.
Alesia Galati (07:15):
Yes, could not agree more. Yeah, I think about
even like, the empathy that Ihave gained as just like being
able to understand someoneelse's experience, and, no, I
don't mean smashing an alienshark. The other things, which I
mean, like interesting, but theother things, like, in that
(07:37):
story, specifically thinkingabout someone who's like, hey,
we can't procreate. Are you okaywith that? That is a topic for a
lot of people, and that's notyour typical hea happily ever
after for the uni initiated.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (07:54):
Yeah.
And I'd say, like, it is atrope, but it's redone, right?
So there's always the bars needswomen trope, where the women
were always abducted because themen on the alien planet couldn't
reproduce and had no women leftor whatever. This does it a
little bit differently, whereit's all consensual. They sign
up for it. They're expecting it.
It's not like they were justjoint out of their backyard and
sent to some alien planet.
Alesia Galati (08:14):
Yeah. And I like this idea of being able to tie
in different things like that,or being in a dead end job that
you hate, and just wanting tohave shark daddy take care of
you. Like, I get it. I
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (08:27):
feel that, listen, I feel that if I
had some rich shark daddy belike, come to my beautiful
planet and like, with my twodicks, and I'll take care of
you. Yeah. Sign me the frick up.
Sorry, husband, love you. Tie meup
Alesia Galati (08:43):
exactly. Yeah, I think it is. It's interesting,
like thinking about, likeromance and how and even the
unfortunate reads, right as youso lovingly put them, that we
can learn so much about our owndesires or like, what we want in
a partner beyond just two dicks,right? Because we know that's
(09:04):
not, most likely not going tohappen, statistically, but
there's so much more to romancethan I think meets the eye, and
so this is not the place for anyshame or shade you want to read
the craziest stuff. I don't wantto say crazy, because I feel
like that's overused in thesense of, like, bad, right? But
(09:26):
you guys, I
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (09:27):
call it weird lovingly, like, I take
back that word, like I readweird shit, and that's fine. I
love it. There's nothing wrongwith that. So take that word
back. You can call it crazy,weird and off the wall, and I'm
here for it.
Alesia Galati (09:39):
I love it. So let's get into some of those,
like initial books that you readwhere you were like, Oh, this is
very interesting that, like youmentioned, it piqued your
interest, and ones that you tendto recommend to like noobs.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (09:53):
So when I first started delving
into Monster romance, that was along time ago, before it was
really popular, and before. Orthe indie publishing was, like
huge and as easy as it is now,but to get into the sentient
object stuff, I will say thatunhinged was one of the ones
that caught my eye first, andalso Vera Valentine's other one
squeak because it was a door. Ihad to know how she banged the
(10:15):
door like I just had to knowwhat the story was, right,
whether it was going to be superweird or I don't know what I was
expecting, but Vera is aphenomenal author, like she is a
wordsmith through and through.
So you read these books, and allof a sudden I was like, this is
really well written, which a lotof people have that realization,
and I get it, but it was reallywell written. There was a story,
there was backstory, there waslore, and it was fun. It
spiraled into Tyrannosaurus topsand bottoms. It's in. It also
(10:39):
spiraled into stuff, the pillowone, and things like that. So I
think it just you, once you getin one, it's like, you don't
stop. You just keep going formore. Yes,
Alesia Galati (10:52):
I don't know that. I've gotten so much into
the objects, though. Haven'tread the door one, but I did
read squeak and
Cassie @Unfortunate Rea (11:02):
squeaks on the edge of like the sentient
object, right? Because they'retechnically shifters. It's a
weird Omega burst, and they turninto balloon animals, but
they're technically shifters,right? They don't start as
something else, like the doordoes, or the candy corn or
whatever else it is. But that'swhere a lot of my stuff
originated. Is that sentientobject? Yeah, monster Romans
(11:23):
too. I love Monster romance, butsentient object romance is just
a whole different level of likecomedy and interesting to me
Alesia Galati (11:31):
explain that. So for people who are like, I don't
really understand thedifference.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (11:36):
Yeah, so sentient object romance is
exactly what it sounds like. Soif you were to look around at
your house and this hashappened, don't I'm telling you,
this happened. And looked aroundand said, Can I fuck that? How
would I fuck it, you know, if Icould? And so that's where this
all starts. I'm not joking,like, the amount of people who
do that. And so that's whatsentient object romance is, is
you think about an object comingto life, why it comes to life,
(12:00):
and how you would do it when itcame to life. Whereas monster
romances usually revolves aroundeither shifters or aliens, I'm
gonna say I'm encompassing allof it in Monster romance. I know
that it's technically paranormalor sci fi, but let's talk it as
a whole, or monsters or orcs orthings that you're used to
seeing, right? There's monstersthat you have seen in lore or in
other books, even as a kid,where a sentient object is out
(12:24):
there, it could be anything I
Alesia Galati (12:26):
can just to see people being like, what? But
stay with those guys. I promise
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (12:33):
it's gonna be good. Listen, I promise
it will make sense to you, ifyou ever pick up one, yes.
Alesia Galati (12:40):
What is the difference than what we would
see in, like, your typicalromances? I know a lot of these
in sentient objects. Those tendto be like very short bite size,
not a ton of backstory that youwould expect, minus the Avira
ones that you've mentioned,where there's a lot of backstory
where you might not haveexpected that. But typically,
(13:01):
from what I've seen, they'relike your one one and a half
hour reads, how does thatdiffer? And how does the story
arc tend to differ from, say,your typical contemporary
romance or your typical sci firomance?
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (13:17):
Yeah, so I'd actually say that it
doesn't differ that much. Ithink that there's a couple ways
people write, and neither one ofthem is right or wrong. So like,
you have Vera or me, who puts alot of information on how it got
turned into a human, or how it'salive, or whatever. Meanwhile,
Holly wild is like, We'refucking sunscreen. Now I'm not
giving you an explanation.
You're gonna like it. So there'stwo different approaches to the
sentient object romance, and Idon't think either one of them
(13:40):
is right or wrong. So some ofthem are just, you're going to
deal with it this, forget lore,forget backstory. And so those
are your really quick reads,like under an hour reads. And
then I think that even thoughsome of these ascension object
romance books are short, theyhave a full range of characters
from like a redemption arc,they've got issues with other
people and governments andwhatever you have you all packed
(14:03):
into a book that's under 100pages. And so it takes those
tropes and arcs in acontemporary romance book and
translates them in how you woulddo it in this so like the door
book, obviously they have sex,and you have to figure out how
to do it. But there's also thearc of the landlord's evil and
things like that. Or I'm tryingto think of another book that
has the tropes that you wouldconsider touch or and die is a
(14:25):
big one. And stuffed and stuffedthe pillow literally drains the
life from people. And theoriginal reason he drains like
the life force from this personis because he the pillow. Ori
saw this guy, Todd being slimyto the per the girl he was in
love with, and so when Toddtouched the pillow, he like
sucked his life force out ofthem, right? So it's like they
had another touch or die. Instuff too, is some security
(14:47):
guards were going to be catchingher and do something like nasty
to her, so he sucked the lifeout of them too. Like it's a
touch or die, but it's a pillow.
And then in the double stuff,the second one, there's primal.
Play at a chase scene, but it'sbetween the pillow and the fish
man, so I don't think it variesall that much. I think that a
lot of the sentient objectauthors take what you see in a
(15:08):
contemporary romance and turn iton into that a little bit. Yeah,
Alesia Galati (15:12):
I love that, though, because I think that
really, and I like to say thisfor diversity too, right? If you
want a second chance romance,that's a contemporary romance,
right? Like monsters andsentient objects aside, if you
want that kind of trope, you canfind that across a slew of
diverse authors, diversebackgrounds, diverse stories,
(15:33):
and still have a really highquality, either low angst, high
angst, like it doesn't matter,you will have that across the
board. And so I think that it'ssuch an important point that
while we can read for fun, wecan still read whatever we want,
and it can be across the boarddiversely, whether that is a
(15:54):
touch her and die mafia or atouch her and die Black Mafia or
a touch her and die pillow, itdoesn't matter. Yeah.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (16:02):
And I think what's fun about sentient
object romance and even monsterromance is that it's inherently
diverse. I think that a lot ofthe authors just if you're
banging something that doesn'thave a gender in the first
place, and it can be anythingyou want, so you don't have to
think about specifically.
Obviously, you want to writewith your own voice. You don't
want to write something aboutyou don't know, but you have a
little bit more freedom to writeabout different gender
expressions and sexualities andthings like that. So there's
(16:25):
really to read it diversely, butalso weird. Yes, 100%
Alesia Galati (16:32):
I think that when people view dark romance
specifically, because that tendsto be the more popular topic.
There's a lot of talk about, isit safe to have those and we've
talked about this before on theshow, but there are dark
romances where it is allowedthose storylines allow sexual
(16:57):
assault survivors to be able toprocess their experiences in a
safe way for them, and so Ithink that the same goes for
these types of books where it'slike you can learn so much and
create safe and empoweringspaces to explore your fantasies
and your desires in a way that'slike You're not actually getting
(17:21):
kidnapped by a two digit shark.
So
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (17:23):
I now that you mentioned that I
actually went, there's somethingI wanted to say about that is
that there's a lot of asexualpeople who have messaged me to
say that this is a kind of asafe way for them to explore
these sexual topics, becauseit's not a person, right? It's
not a person that you getattached to there's sometimes
there's not even skin. Some, itdepends. But I've had a lot of
(17:44):
people who enjoy these booksbecause they can explore that in
a safe and a way that they havecontrol over, versus some of
these other romances that like acontemporary romance, or a dark
mafia romance or something likethat. Oh,
Alesia Galati (17:56):
that's such a good point I saw in threads. I
want to say it was just a fewdays ago, where it was an
asexual author who has sexscenes in their book, and they
mentioned that one, just becausethey're asexual doesn't mean
that they don't enjoy writingabout it and exploring it in a
way that feels safe on page, butthey really don't want to do in
(18:17):
real life, and that's a Okay.
And a lot of people whocommented were like, wait, that
was the thing that was holdingme back from stating that I am
asexual, was that I don't mindthinking about it. I just don't
want to do it. That opened up,like the idea of, oh, wait, I
can claim that as something thatI feel really aligns with how I
(18:39):
show up. So I think that it's soimportant that point like you
wouldn't think, Oh, this issomething that can help people
or is a safe space for asexualsto be able to explore,
especially if you're someone whodoes not identify as that,
because there's so much of aspectrum to sexuality that oh
yeah, if you're not in thatspace, it could be like, Oh, no,
(19:01):
that's just people who and youcan label them right in a really
negative way. And so to be ableto see that, oh, wait, that is
such a great point. Yeah, I'mglad you brought that up. Yeah,
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (19:12):
one of the authors as a friend of
mine, latrucksa Nova, is Ace NBpan this is all out there. I'm
not like outing them or anythinglike that, but they write the
like, really hot sex scenes, andthey love writing this stuff,
and like writing weird stuff,but just because they write
about the experience and havefun doing it doesn't mean that
they necessarily want to have itthemselves. It's a way for them
(19:34):
to express this without doing itin real life.
Alesia Galati (19:38):
Yes, I think it's such an important point, and I
don't think that when,especially people who don't read
romance, try to talk about it, Idon't know if you read the
article that was in Cosmo UK,where they had quoted Ruby Dixon
and Katie Robert and mentionedmonsters. Or Minotaur one seeing
(20:02):
a Costa? Yes, thank you. So theyhad mentioned that, and you
could tell that this person wasnot a romance reader at all, and
that it was all about monsterromance and why we're obsessed
with aliens right now, and whywe're obsessed with fucking
sending objects, and why we'reinto this whole thing, or why we
want to get chased through amaze by a minatorium for it, I'm
(20:27):
not going to try it, you know.
And so, like, you could tellfrom the article that, well,
Ruby Dixon was like, I was justhappy to be quoted. Like, I
thought that was cool that I wasin Cosmo at the same time. She
was like, I didn't really lovethe approach, but it's cool that
I got quoted, and I agreed itwas just like, you could tell
(20:49):
that they were just giving a lotof negative connotation to
people reading this kind ofstuff and not really exploring
the conversation outside ofjust, oh, you're reading monster
smut, which I think about evenmyself. 10 years ago, before I
started reading this kind ofstuff, I was super judgy of
(21:11):
even, like regular smut, noteven talking about monster smut.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (21:19):
I clearly was not, since I
started. So, yeah, I thinkthat's important to what you're
saying, is they don't exploreoutward, outwardly, of what else
it could be besides the sex,right? Yeah, okay, there's sex,
and some of them, it's hot, butsometimes that's not the point
of some of these books. Andpeople who write these books are
still authors, so they're stillwriting characters that practice
(21:40):
consent, or have an identitycrisis, or have body dysmorphia.
That's, I can name books thathave all of those things in
them, outside of just cool, thesex was hot, like I had sex with
an orc. But also there was a sexworker involved in gaff only
fans, that it's not only fansselling fannies or something
like that, and like bodydysmorphia and interracial
(22:01):
dating. So it's just there's alot of that we put into it that
is beyond just like fucking
Alesia Galati (22:08):
Yes. And I think that when we approach these
conversations, and you and I arebeing comical a bit in the way
that we're approaching it, and Ifeel like you approach it very
comically, but in a way to drawpeople in. You're not it's like
the one girl who reads all thoseone star reviews of books, flips
them. It's, oh, wait, that kindof made me want to read the
(22:30):
book, or, Oh, that was, like, acomical way to approach that
book. She's not tagging meauthors or doing any of that
stuff. But it still is a way to,like, comically approach these
topics. And I think that you dothat so well. Like you stated
where you're like, look, you'reeither gonna read this or you're
not, not gonna tell you if Iliked it or not. But this is
(22:52):
what happened.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (22:53):
I think a lot of times you need
humor to draw you in, becausepeople shy away from things that
are too like, serious, right?
Have I read them? Yeah, I'veread classics, but I don't want
to. I want to read this otherstuff instead. So if you do a
little funny, people have towatch. It's like, I look at the
door. I had to read it. Someonehears me talk about the door.
They got to know what happens.
You
Alesia Galati (23:12):
know, yes, I think it's so good, though,
because it allows people to feellike, oh, wait, this isn't the
one. Reading doesn't have to beas serious as I think we make it
as adults. And that was a lot ofmy own reading journey was, oh,
I'm in college, and I have toread for college. Oh, I'm an
adult, I'm a new mom, so I haveto read new mom books, or, Oh,
(23:33):
I'm an adult, and I'm trying tobe a better person and be a good
parent and show up as a goodwife. So I need to read all
these self development books,and I was pushing myself to the
point of feeling shitty aboutmyself because I couldn't get
through these books. I
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (23:52):
hate those books. I'm not so say,
like a specific book, it's justas a whole. I don't enjoy
reading them, so it's a slog. Iread fast. I read really fast.
At one point, I think I readover 400 books at the end of
2022 or something like that.
That just it drags for me,right? Like it's just not the
way I want to consume my media.
Regarding that topic, how thecomments on my page are on the
(24:13):
videos, especially when thingsget on the wrong side of the
internet, are like, Why don'tyou try reading something
serious? Or have you ever read,why don't you try reading catch
or the rye, and I'm like, Yeah,I have have you. I've read gana
Karina, I've read War and Peace,I've read Of Mice and Men and
all those classics. That doesn'tmean that the books I'm reading
now aren't any more or lessimportant to what my experience
(24:37):
is as a well rounded reader. Ithink a lot of times they throw
that in your face, and I'm like,okay, yeah, I have, and I don't
want to.
Alesia Galati (24:46):
Does that make you a and I think this is person
specific, right? Is what you'rereading, allowing you to grow as
a person or live the life thatyou want to be living, which I
don't think is. Something thatwe consider, enough that
especially with society of likesocial media and seeing
(25:06):
everybody else's stuff andseeing what everybody else is
doing, and, oh, I read X amountof books, and they were all self
development, or the other oneguy who said that he read like a
book a day, but really he justskimmed to the first two pages
of each chapter.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (25:25):
I think along the way, we've lost
and again, not everybody's likethis, obviously, but I'm
watching my son right now. He'stwo, and he is obsessed with
reading and books, and wants tojust pick up his own and do his
own thing. And he will gothrough him book after book, and
he's getting excited when heunderstands the words, and it
brings you joy. And then you getjoy when you read other stories,
and you get to read about moredetail stories, or there's
(25:47):
goosebumps, or the thoroughbredseries, or whatever else it is,
right? But somewhere betweenhigh school and college and
adulthood, we lost that readingis for pleasure and joy aspect
as well as knowledge. So I thinkthat a lot of people are like,
Oh, we can't read for funanymore. We can only read
serious things. That's not true,because if you have no fun in
your life, then that doesn'tmake you a well rounded person
(26:08):
either. Yes,
Alesia Galati (26:11):
I think as maybe this is men see this, but we
don't have these conversations.
But I think as women, too,there's so much pressure on us
to be just one thing, right,instead of multifaceted and
having hobbies and havinginterests outside of our house,
outside of our jobs, outside ofour marriages, I'm not saying go
(26:31):
outside of your marriage. I'msaying like interests outside of
your marriage, when, in reality,interests actually allow you to
come back to your relationshipsway healthier. I know I got a
lot of people having opinionsabout me going back to work
after I had both of my kids, andit was like I got my clear from
(26:53):
the doctor. After six weeks, I'mgoing back. I do not want to be
home with a child. I'm alreadydealing with postpartum
depression. I need other people,and I need to be having adult
interactions to be alive. So no,I cannot be home with my child.
There's
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (27:15):
a lot of comments, and then it's
really just translated from pornto dressing scandalously or
whatever it is, is that menthink that they can police the
way that women act and what theyenjoy and consume. So a lot of
the comments on my page are, ifI had a girl, I wouldn't let
them read this. This is I waslike, let them what. Let them
(27:35):
like. That is a red flag leftand right, just it's a book, and
now it's the phrasing, and it'sagain, men trying to police what
women can enjoy and what womencan consume, or how they act.
Alesia Galati (27:47):
So there's another conversation. I'm
curious, of your opinion goingaround about putting ratings on
books like they did for CDs. Iwant to say that was early,
2000s What are your thoughts onthat?
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (27:59):
So here's the problem, and we're
talking about readings just foreveryone. I'm assuming. We're
not talking about stars, we'retalking about content ratings,
right? So Ma, or whatever it is,okay, that would be great.
However, because of logistics,we can't, because a lot of these
books are written by indieauthors, and the main source of
publishing for indie authors isAmazon. Amazon is very strict
(28:21):
about the words you can use,what can be on their covers,
even down to what can be in yourblurb. I've had books put on
what's called a dungeon becauseI had one word wrong in my
keyword search. And as much aswe'd like to the reason you see
a lot of authors say your checkyour trigger warnings are on my
website and not my book, isbecause Amazon scans that stuff
and we'll ban them, and willrevoke your account and access.
(28:42):
So as much as I think it wouldbe great to be able to have,
like, spice level, it's just notlogistically possible. I think
it's also, you know, even ifthey had something, especially
for these cartoon covers,because I know that a lot of
times it looks like rom com isactually like a dark fafu, yeah,
because that's just the trendright now. But on the other
hand, you should be reading theblurb, right? You should be
reading. If you're getting intoa book and you read about it,
(29:03):
you should know what you'regetting into in the first place.
You shouldn't just pick it upblindly, unless you're like me
and you don't care. One of ourreviews on push to cushions,
reviews don't bother me at all,was a one star and it said,
basically, it literally said, Iread the trigger warnings. I
just thought it would bedifferent. What No Ma sticker on
the front of that is going tochange that person and how they
reacted to the book or stop themfrom reading it.
Alesia Galati (29:26):
Yeah, and that's so true. Yeah. One of the
authors who was combating thisidea was saying, just like,
Walmart will not allow ma ontheir CDs that they're selling.
You don't want to put authors inthat position. And then it also
ties a bit into banning books,right? And What books should be
(29:49):
allowed or what books shouldn'tbe allowed, and, yeah, there's
so much discussion around thisthat I'm always so interested in
people's opinions, because it'snever something I thought about.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (29:57):
I actually have a very specific
example I just went. Room. So mybook handle me is dungeon, and I
could not figure out why,because I thought me because I
put erotica in the like searchtitles, they're very finicky
about what it is, and so Iactually messaged them to be
like, what is it? What do I haveto do to get this on dungeon so
you can search for it? Andapparently, and I don't remember
doing this, because it was myfirst book I published on my
(30:19):
own, and I don't think I didthis. I think something messed
up. There's a thing that says,Does your cover or title contain
any explicit imagery or wordsyou have to hit? Yes or no you
always want to hit No. Mine wasselected as Yes, and literally,
if you select Yes, Amazon willsuppress that book No matter
what, even if it's in thecategory of raga. So they said
that Amazon will suppress bookslike that and keep it out of
(30:42):
their search results, to keepAmazon a safe space. So that's
why we can't do that. It's justlike you said, like Walmart has
restrictions. Amazon is likeguys, just has a chokehold on
the market, and they make iteasy to publish, but you gotta
follow their rules.
Alesia Galati (30:55):
Yeah. So interesting. What is it like
being a content creator forbookish stuff, and also an
author. How do you balance it?
And also, there's a lot of talkabout like author spaces,
reviewer spaces, reader spaces.
So how do
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (31:12):
you balance all that? So I think
it's a little easier for me,because I started out not doing
reviews. I didn't give starratings, I didn't tag authors,
and star ratings once you'vehave crossed the line from just
a content creator to publishingyour book, which happens a lot,
you no longer can be a contentcreator that reviews that way if
you want to be part of thecommunity, because essentially,
(31:32):
what you're doing is you'retalking good or bad about your
co workers, right? And you can'tdo that. You've now switched
gears into being a little morein the author space, even though
you're bridging both. So yeah,it was easier for me because I
never gave reviews, because Ijust didn't feel like that was
that's not my style. It's notwhat I wanted. I just wanted to
tell you about the book, whetherI liked it and thought it was a
five star reader you did, andeveryone's gonna have a
(31:53):
different perception of it.
Perspective, oh my gosh. Wordsare great perception of it. What
level of good it is? So
Alesia Galati (32:00):
yeah, that's a good point, too. And I always
get a little like iffy, becauseI see people go from reader to
author. Kudos to you. That'sawesome. I'm always curious how
they're going to approach thatgoing forward, and how they plan
on either shifting their contententirely or like, I know one
author who does a lot ofindependent she's an indie
(32:23):
author, and she doesn'tnecessarily review them. She'll
just say, Oh, these are thebooks I read this month, and
shout out to those authors,which I think is a good way to
approach it, rather than leavingratings and reviews, because
there's a lot of finickiness tothat.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (32:40):
Yeah, and I actually have a friend
who's publishing her first book,and I think it helps to have the
community watching out for youonce you get yourself in that
community, because she ispublishing her first book is not
published yet, but it's comingout, and she posted over rating
like she normally does, and Imessaged her. Was like, Hey, you
can't do that anymore, like youcan, but I'm gonna tell you what
the consequences are, and Idon't think you should do that
(33:00):
for your career. If you havepeople watching out for you,
that's also super helpful whenyou're transitioning.
Alesia Galati (33:06):
Yeah. Oh, that's so fun. So this has been
amazing, Cassie. Thank you somuch for being on where can
people find you get to know youwatch your videos because I
gotta tell y'all just go watchCassie videos because they are
hilarious and I love watchingthem. And also, check out your
books.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (33:25):
I have my website,
unfortunates.com where I'm stillupdating with my books, but I do
have all my narration listedthere, my shop, my Instagram and
tick tock. The place you want towatch my videos is mostly
Instagram and tick tock. And asfar as the books, they're all on
Amazon for the most part. So ifyou go to my website, there's
links to everything
Alesia Galati (33:41):
awesome, and we'll make sure that we have
links for that in the shownotes, in the description, for
anyone who's watching or anddoing other things as podcast
listeners tend to so be sure togo follow Cassie. Cassie, this
has been so much fun. Thank youso much.
Cassie @Unfortunate Reads (33:56):
Thank you for having me. Wow.
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